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Trivium’s Matt Heafy Speaks On Calling His Band ‘The Next Metallica’, “Ember To Inferno” Reissue

Age has given Trivium vocalist/guitarist Matt Heafy some hindsight when it comes to comments he made regarding the band in his youth. Speaking recently on an episode of Talk Toomey, Heafy addressed the infamous comments he made years back where he likened his band to being the next Metallica along with the benefit of starting the band at a young age. He spoke of that:

“We really blew up in the UK first and we got our first cover feature when we were like 18 or so. The quote on the front was from me because I was a confident 18 year old, and had been in the band for 6 years at that point. The quote was something along the lines of ‘Trivium: The next Metallica‘ and at that moment it really worked out for our band in the UK.

But other bands started seeing that and saying ‘Who the hell is this young band calling themselves the next Metallica?’ So that’s when we started seeing a little bit of difficulty, things that we didn’t expect. We didn’t expect other bands to not be ready for this young band that had a boatload of determination for what they wanted to do. Those things were a little strange…”

Having then broken down the differing reactions to the band’s subsequent records in different territories, he continued on about his quote:

“That was my goal from when I was 12. That’s something I knew I wanted to do from being a kid. I wanted to be in a metal band that can play arenas. So it was a little bit of us saying that cause that’s what we wanted to do. And still to this day, I don’t want to do it like my heroes. But I absolutely want to be the kind of band that makes a dent on…heavy music.

Whether it be rock or metal, I want people to know what our band is, and I want to be able to play in front of as many people as possible. I just think it’s a lot more of a shock when it’s teenagers, than when it’s an adult saying it. So nowadays, we say the exact same things and people respect that…”

Heafy also mentioned that the band are working on a reissue of their 2003 debut, “Ember To Inferno“, as well as three unreleased demos Heafy recorded back when he was 15-18. He hopes to have that out later this year.